Use of Imaging and Prefabricated Stents to Minimize Surgical Trauma

Article Outline

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Current trends in providing health care include management and treatment of patients using minimally invasive procedures. Advancements in biotechnology and surgical techniques now permit the surgeon to gain access to remote sites to perform surgery without creation of a flap, thus minimizing inflammatory response, disruption of vascularity and soft tissue trauma, and thus reducing surgical risks, as well as, the recuperative period for the patient. Conventional surgical approach to implant placement required reflection of a wide flap to permit visualization of the recipient bone bed, preparation of the bone with attention paid to minimizing trauma, primary closure of the soft tissue and an undisturbed, nonfunctional healing period. Unfortunately, many of these patients wore ill-fitting removable prostheses during this healing period, which resulted in uncontrollable forces on the soft tissue and worse, on the healing implant. Today, the implant surgeon may take advantage of recent developments with computer software programs to analyze DICOM files generated by conventional CT scanners and CADCAM technology to generate surgical templates that will direct the placement of implants into the planned positions; and with the accuracy of the scans, as well as, the implant positions, a restorative prosthesis may be prefabricated. Taking this approach will not only minimize trauma, but also minimize total treatment time for our implant patients.

This presentation will delineate how the Implant Team may work together to develop the treatment sequence, plan for the ideal positioning of implants as dictated by the definitive restoration and to control the forces directed to the implants by connecting a fixed restoration immediately after placement. A practical approach to minimally invasive surgery and immediate loading will be presented.